ROCKFORD — The state’s deadbeat practices are nothing new, they had just been delayed for a while.

In the late 1980s and early 1990s the state regularly put off payments to Lutheran Social Services of Illinois, one of its largest and broadest care providers for the poor, ill and abandoned.

Then over a 12-year span the money started coming in on time, said Daniel Schwick, vice president of church and public engagement for Lutheran Social Services. But the state froze the amount it paid, virtually asking the provider to keep up the same services for the same amount of money even while the prices of gas, insurance, food, electricity and everything else associated with living went up.

It was unsustainable, Schwick said.

Then came the crash in 2008 and it got worse. The state immediately started to skip payments again to manage its cash flow. And now it’s standard practice for Lutheran Social Services to borrow from banks and take on long-term debt as it scrambles to save what services it can.

“Every year, like other organizations, we take a very hard look at what we’re not going to be able to do next year,” Schwick said.

The thing to keep in mind, Schwick said, is the vast majority of care to the state’s poorest of the poor isn’t done by the state itself. It’s contracted out to private care groups. It’s Stepping Stones of Rockford that houses and treats the mentally ill who have burned out on other programs. And it’s Malcolm Eaton Enterprises in Freeport that trains mentally disabled adults the most remedial of skills. It’s the religious and non-religious nonprofits that provide meals and housing for the elderly, take in parolees, find foster care families and run adoption agencies.

When the private groups need to drastically cut or are forced out of human care service because the state withholds their money, in many cases the vulnerable have no where else to go.

When Lutheran Social Services cuts, it can mean homelessness or prison, or endless trips to the emergency room.

This is the so called safety net, Schwick said.

Half of the 109,000 people Lutheran Social Services cares for are virtually destitute, coming from households earning less than $5,000 a year. Nearly 80 percent come from households earning less than $15,000 a year.

Lutheran Social Services builds houses for the elderly and runs foster care and adoption programs. It treats drug addicts and the mentally ill. It takes in parolees and the homeless.
It serves every corner of the state and operates with a $118 million budget, about 70 percent of which comes from the state.

The amount Springfield owes Lutheran Social Services fluctuates and has reached as high as $11 million. That’s down to about $5 million, where it’s expected to stay, Schwick said.

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“The good news is it’s not growing any more,” he said. “But it’s a rolling $5 million or $6 million. And there’s no plan in place for us ever getting that back.